Internal-combustion engine



C. G. BARRETT INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Fild Dec. 24, 1925 Aug. 12, 1930.

Patented Aug. 12, i

UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE cmms e. ram'r'r, or anonnwoon, wrsconsm' mrman-connusrron ENGINE Application Med December 84, 1985. Serial No. 77,555.

The invention relates to internal combus 'tion engines, more especially of the high compression, oil burning injection type, mdependent of whether it isa two or four cycle 5 operation.

The objects of the invention are: First. To construct an engineof the above type which is so constructed and arranged as to provide a pre-combustion chamber formed by the piston and inner surface ofthe cylgo the piston-head. A corresponding and similar cylindrical surface is also formed on the inner face of the cylinder head, concentric with and parallel to the axis of the head. The relative location and diameters of these two cylindrical surfaces may be as shown in Figure 1, wherein the cylindrical surface on the outer end of the piston overlaps and surrounds the cylindrical surface on the inner face of the cylinder head as the piston nears its outer dead center; or, as shown in. Figure 2, wherein the cylindrical surface on the outer end of the piston enters and is surrounded by the cylindrical surface on the inner face of the cylinder head. In either case, the juxtaposition of these two cylindrical surfaces serves to separate the total cylinder clearance volume into two main divisions, the central portion forming what is hereinafter referred to as the pr'e-combustion chamber, and the outer portion, consisting of an annular space adjacent to the cylinder wall, forming the main combustion chamber.

Third. To provide and arrange an intercommunicating passage between the pre-combustion chamber and the main combustion chamber, referred to above, in such a manner asto most effectively direct the delivery of the main portion of the fuel charge from, the

re-combustion chamber to the main com- 50 bustion chamber, as caused by the pressure rise in the pre-combustion chamber incident to the initial combustion of a portion of the fuel charge therein.

, Fourth. To construct and arrange the piston and c linder head with its pre-combustion chamber, intercommunicating passage referred to above with respect to a multi-jet fuel spray valve so that the fuel jets, when directed in an approximately radial direction, will penetrate the atmosphere of the pre-combustion chamber and form a ring of vaprous fuel .at the outer edge of the pre-combustion chamber,

thereby promoting an immediate and complete combustion effect in the main combusmain combustion'chamber, and

tion chamber as this vaporizedfuel charge is blown into the main combustion chamber by the pressure rise produced by the partial combustion occurring in the pre-combustion chamber. 4

' Fifth. To construct and arrange the piston and cylinder head with its pre-combustion chamber, main combustionchamber and intercommunicating passage referred to above, with respect to a suitable fuel spray valve, preferably of themulti-jet type, so that the main movement of the fuel is continuously and progressively outward in an approximately radial direction, producing the main combustion eflect adjacent to the outer perimeter of the piston head and thereby aiding in maintaining a cool piston by shortening the path of heat transfer from piston head to cylinder wall.-

Sixth. To constructand arrange the piston and cylinder head with its pre-combustion chamber and main combustion chamber, and

with an intercoinmunicating passage formed by the annular clearance ring etween the ad jacent and overla ping cylindrical surfaces on piston and cylinder head when piston is at or nearouter dead center, so that the air movement between pre-combustion chamber and main combustion chamber, when not controlled by combustion efife cts, may be regulated as to direction and relative violence as the piston moves to its outer dead center position. v

vSeventh. Other objects and advantages of construction will be apparent from the detailed descriptionand mode of o ration of the invention to be presently disc osed.

The invention consists of structural characteristics and relative arran ements ofelements which will be hereina ter more fully given and particularly pointed out in the apnded claims.

In the drawingsin which similar reference characters indicate the same parts in the four outer end of the piston is made of such size as to enter with suitable clearance the corresponding cylindrical surface formed on the inner face of the cylinder head as the piston completes its outward stroke.

Figure 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the valve for spraying or in jecting the fuel into the cylinder, and

Figure 4 is .a bottom view of the distributor plate of the valve shown in Figure 3.

Referring to the drawin 1 represents the cylinder which is provi ed with a head 2 having a fuel injection or spray valve 3. With piston 4 at or near outer dead center, the total cylinder, clearance volume is divided into a pre-combustion chamber'fi and main combustion chamber 6 by the overlapping of concentric cylindrical surfaces 7 and 8 formedv respectively on the inner face of the cylinder head and outer end of the piston. The annular clearance 9 between the adjacent cylindrical surfaces 7 and 8 forms the preferred means of communication between the precombustion chamber 5 and main combustion chamber 6. v

The fuel in'ection or spray valve 8, shown in detail in i res 3 and 4 may be of any approved type, ut is p'r'eferabl of the multijet type as indicated,'in whic the opening 18 is connected with any suitable fuel pump, not shown, while 19 is an air relief valve having a discharge opening 20 leading to the atmosphere. 21 is a valve held to its seat by spring 22, and controllin the communication with the orifices 10. e multiple orifices 10 of the spray valve are arranged to direct fuel jets outward in an approximately radial direction as indicated bv dotted lines a, a, so as to deliver the main portion of the fuel charge where it will accumulate as a ring of vaprous fuel at the outer edge of the recombustionchamber and immediately .a jacent to the intercommunicating passage 9.

the communcating passage 9 between t e adjacent cylindrical surfaces 7 and 8. Approximately at thisposition fuel injection is started throu h the spray valve 3. The character of the fuel jets a, a, is such as to give them sufiicient penetrationto conve the main portion of the fuel charge outwar ly toward the perimeter of the pre-combustion chamber 5, where it vaporizes and forms a ring of gaseous fuel immediately adjacent to the intercommunicating passage 9. Durin the passageof the fuel ets a, a, through t e air of the pre-combustion chamber, a certain portion of the fuel va orizes from the jets and combinin with t e highly heated air in the pre-com ustion chamber, produces an initial combustion and consequent pressure rise in this chamber. Fuel injection is preferably completed before or ap roximate y at dead center, depending on con itions of load,

and the whole process is such that coincident with the arrival of the piston at outer dead center, the main portion of the fuel charge is accumulated in the pre-combustion chanibar as a gaseous ring adjacent to the intercommunicating passage 9, and the pressure rise incident to initial combustion in the pre- 7 combustion chamber has. become sufficiently high to blow the gasified fuel charge violent- 1 ly through the passage 9 and into the main combustion chamber 6, where it mixes with' the main air charge, effecting rapid and complete combustion as the piston begins its power stroke. 1

as is usual with engines of the pre-combus-' tion chamber type the fuel injection is so timed and the combustion chambers and intercommunicating passage are so proportioned as to cause the main combustion to 11s start with the piston just at or slightly after outer dead center and to continue at a rate approximately just suflicient to maintain con-, stant pressure in the cylinder during the com bustion period. The engine is thus made to 120 0 rate on the constant pressure or Diesel cyc e, eliminatin the-tendency toward ex 10- sive shocks and detonations whicn is in erv ent in engines operating on the constant volume cycle.

A distinctive feature of the present engine as compared to other engines of the precoinbustion chamber type is in the relative-'arrangement of pre-combustion chamber and main combustion chamber and the consequent path of fuel travel from the injection valve to the zone of combustion. It is, common practice in engines ofthis general clasaengines of the Hvid type excepted, to have the pre-combustion chamber constructed as a fixed part of the cylinder head with the maincombustion chamber centrally dis osed with reference to the axis of the c lindbr and di rectly in communication wit the re-combustion chamber through a fixed orifice concentric with the axis of the. cylinder or through a group'of orifices symmetrically arranged about the axis and relatively close thereto. This arrangement of parts results in the general movement of fuel from the spray valve to the combustion zone in lines more nearly parallelto the cylinder axis than radial, and the main combustion takes place adjacent to a relatively small central portion of the piston heada'rea, with a flaming jet or jets of gaseous fuel and air mixture directed toward the central portion of the piston head from the intercommunicating orifice or orifices. The result is an easily overheated piston andva tendency to burn away the central portion of the piston head after substantial periods of operation at full load.

Contrasted to the construction just described, the present engine has its main combustion chamber of annular shape located adjacent to the cylinder wall and with the pre-combustion chamber centrally disposed thereto.

This arrangement provides for approximately radial movement of the fuel from the spray valve to the zone of combustion, and by confining the main combustion to a-space adjacent to the outer edge of the piston head, a relatively cool running piston is insured because of the short path of heat transfer from face of piston to cylinder'walls. Furthermore,due to the relatively large diameter of the annular clearance ring between 0 linder head and piston, which constitutes t e intercommunicating passage between pre-combustionchamber and main combustion chamber,'

I there is a complete absence of any tendency to burn the piston such as ordinarily results from the concentrated heat effects when using orifices or other relatively small diameter passages for delivery of the fuel charge from pre-combustion chamber to main combustlon chamber.

A further distinctive feature of the present engine, derived from the relatively large diameter of the intercommunicating passage and the formation of the pre combustion chamber with relatively large radial dimension and short axial dimension,-is the ability to so proportion and design these parts that the fuel injection from spray valve topre combustion chamber may be made intoa relatively calm and nonturbulent atmosphere, or

into an air current moving from pre-combustion'chamber to mam combustion chamber, instead of into an atmosphere made tur- -bulent by the air blast produced by the outward motion of the piston' and directed from i the main combustion chamber into the prepombustion chamber because of the more rap- 1d rise of compression pressure in the latter chamber. The present construction renders it I possibleto so proportion the relative volumes of pre -combustion chamber and main combustion chamber, the diameter of the interoommunicating passage, and the amount of overla of the surfaces 7 and 8, as to control the re ative pressure rise, in pre-combustion chamber and main combustion-chamber to produce-either a condition of approximate:

equilibrium and therefore of non-turbulent atmosphere in the pre-combustion chamber at the: instant of fuel injection, or a more rapid rise of pressure in the pre-combustion chamber thanin the main combustion chamher so as toproduce a flow of air from the former. to the latter incident to the initial overlapping of the surfaces 7 and 8 and approximatelycoincident with the beginning of fuel injection. The advantages of injecting into l a non-turbulent atmosphere or into an atmosphere where the air currents approximately coincide with the desired direction of fuel movement, as opposed to the more conven-@ tional construction where the fuel s ray is directed against or across a rather vio ent air blast comin into the pre-combustion chamber, are as olloWs:

Firstly, a finer and m'orenearly atomized; spray may be used, since it does not need to have such high penetrative power as would be required to combat op osing air currents.

Secondly, the required epo'sit of vaporized.

fuel charge in immediate juxtaposition with ber, and as always occurs when the intercommunicating passage consists of a fixed orifice or orifices, makes it possible to obtain automatic ignition of the fuel in the precombustion chamber at lower compression pressures, v

thereby facilitating the so-called cold starting of the engine. Also. this cold starting.

is furtherpromoted by the ability to make use of a more finely atomized fuel spray, as I explained'above under paragraph -firstly, a fine spray being more quickly vaporized and. ignited than a coarser one under similar heat conditions.

, struct'o will bk 2 head, said. precombustion chamber said precombustion chamber From the foregoing disclosures of conn31 operation of the vention,it een that all the advanta es and ob- 'ects eciteifl in the statement of invention ave been 9 and there isphoduced an internal combustion engine of the so-called solid injection precombustion chambertype, differing" in certain important respects from other existin engines of this general type, all as pointe out and explained above, and while I have shownand particularly described a two cycle type for the reason that the omission of air and exhaust valves from the cylinder head simplifies the design, it will be understood that the same essential constructions and mode of operation are equally well adapte to the four cycle type.

While herein is described and shown the referred form of my invention, I do not imit myself to this specific arrangement, as

many changes and modifications will readily suggest themselves to any one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. An internal combustion engine compris ing a cylinder, a iston having a substantially cylindrical sur ace formed on its outer end, and a cylinder head with a substantially 'cylindrical surface formed on its inner face,

said cylinder head fitted with a fuel injeclly and efficiently carried out, I

- combustion chamber ad acent to t e outer perimeter of the. head 0 .the piston, and an 1 cylindrical surface formed on its inner faoe,all

soconstructed and arranged as to form, with iston at or near outer dead center, a centrall y disposed approximately disc shaped precombustion chamber, an. annular sha annular shaped intercommunicating passage between the precombustion chamber'and t e main combustion chamber, and a fuel spra valve in said recombustion chamber situate approximate y at the axis of the cylinder and constructed and arranged to deliver substantially the entire fuel charge approximately radially outward directly into the recombustion chamber so that the unburnc or partially burned portion of said fuel charge will tend to accumulate around the outer edge of said precombustion chamber preparatory to being forcibly ejected through said intercommunicatin passage into said main combustion cham r when giston is substantially at or near top center, tial between said precombustion chamber and said, main combustion chamber incident to automatic ignition and partial combustion of the fuel charge due to heat of compression in said precombustion chamber.

In. testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

CHARLES G, BARRETT.

tion valve, located at the axis of the cylinder and arranged to deliver its full charge approximately radially outward, all so constructed and arranged as to form, with istonat or near outer dea proximately disc shaped precombustion chamber with axis of the disc parallel to and approximately coincident with the axis of the cy 1 nder, and an annular shaped main combustion chamber adjacent to the outer percenter, a central y disposed apchambers being directly .connected only through the intercommunicating passage consihsting of the annular clearance space between t e, o cylin rical surfaces formed on the iston and ing proportioned and arranged to receive from said uel 1n ection valve substantially the entire posing and concentric substantially fuel char e which is ignited in said precombustion c amber by the heat ofcompression,

and said main combustion chamber being proportioned and arranged to receive that rtion of the fuel charge which is forcibly ue to pressure difieren-' 

